Back Into Your Arms

We all met up at the Kirch family home.
I got to meet Pat’s parents, and of course his girlfriend.
She was an interesting one, covered in tattoos unlike Pat.

“Shacara, nice to meet you!” she said putting her hand out to me.

“Melody, nice to meet you too” I said shaking her hand. She was very pretty and she radiated confidence.

“How are you handling the heat?” she asked me as she handed me a cold water from the cooler.

“As you can see, I’m barely handling it” I said wiping the sweat from my forehead. She laughed.

“It got really hot in New York too, though right?”

“Oh yeah, definitely, but never this hot”

“Hey but we are going to Cali, and over there the temperatures are quite cool, maybe 78 degrees the hottest”

“78? Let’s just go already” I laughed.

“Hopefully everyone gets here soon”

I nodded as I continued trying to cool off with my water, John and Pat were laughing about something in the kitchen.
The doorbell opened and Kennedy and his lady arrived. Kennedy said hi to me and quickly rushed over to the kitchen.

I didn’t know his girlfriend either but he had been too distracted to introduce us.
Shacara noticed this and stood up to introduce us right away.

“Melody this is Jackie, Jackie this is Melody, John’s girlfriend”

“Wow, I had no clue he was dating someone, nice to meet you!”

“Nice to meet you too”

“Wow, well this is going to be fun!” Jackie said excitedly. Taking a seat next to me.

“Tell me more about yourself, how did you meet John?”

Shacara hurried over and took a seat next to Jackie.

“Have you not heard the great story?” Shacara asked Jackie and laughed.

“It’s quite a story” I nodded.

“They met in high school” Shacara grinned.

“High school? So you guys have known each other for a long time?”

“Yes, and no” I said trying to think of how to explain the story in the easiest way.

“Melody is John’s first love” Shacara said emphasizing and exaggerating the love part.

“What?” Jackie asked shocked.

“Well I’m not sure I was his first love, he could have loved someone before me-” I was beginning to explain but Shacara cut me off.

“Nope, you were his first love, trust me, and if you don’t we can always ask him, JOHN!” she hollered, there was no way for me to stop her. John right away walked into the living room.

“What’s up?”

“Was Mel your first love?”

I just looked away, embarrassed that this question was even begin asked.

“Indeed”

“See, I told you” Shacara laughed punching me playfully.

“Thank you Shacara, for clarifying that question for us all” I sighed.

“No problem!”

“Are you trying to explain to Jackie how we met?” he asked me. I nodded.

“I’m pretty terrible at it too, maybe you should tell her the grand story” I suggested. He took a deep breath and began.

“Mel and I dated in high school, she was my first love, close to the end of senior year she got into an accident and lost her memory, her parents hated me and took the memory loss as an opportunity to erase me from her life, they moved her far away, so flash forward to 8 years later I see her friend on the street and we decided to stalk her Facebook, we find where Melody works, 2 years after that, I creep into her cooking school, then we meet at a concert, I then ask her to dinner and explain things, we end up on a plane to Arizona, and we are now dating again”

Jackie just blinked and gulped, trying to take it all in.

“You guys are messing with me right?”

“Nope” Shacara, John and I replied in unison.

“This is some serious movie idea trash” Jackie whispered her eyes still wide.

John turned around to look at me and grinned.

“What do you say we sell our story, have it made into a movie and then we retire at the age of 35?”

I just laughed.

“I’m so down”

“So am I!” someone yelled from behind me, I turned around to see who it was. It turned out to be Fal. She had the bottles of wine in her hands, but in despite of that, she still gave me a hug.

“Fal, so nice to have you join us” John said sarcastically and laughed.

Fal just made a face.

“So nice to have you join us” she mocked.

“I’m here too” Garrett said kicking the door open, he was carrying a log of wood.

“Are we having a bonfire?” John asked helping him with the log.

“We sure are!” Garrett declared in his fake country accent.

I just watched them as they joked around with each other, their friendship was beautiful.
Tessa and Jared showed up last but they had stopped to buy us food so they were forgiven.
Having such a huge group was utter chaos, but it was chaos in a good way. The energy just bounced off everyone and radiated to the next person.
Everyone was crammed in the van, but because John was driving the first couple of hours, I got girlfriend privileges and got to sit in the passenger seat in the front with him, but by the time they switched drivers, we were both sent all the way to the back.

“We’re almost there” he whispered over to me as we looked out the window.

“Where are we going anyway? Where are we staying?”

“Hotel in LA, but tomorrow we go to Malibu”

“Is that what you guys were planning in the kitchen?”

He nodded, we were then interrupted.

“Marsh Melo” Falyn said to me turning to face us.

“Falcon” I replied. John and Garrett laughed.

“I wanted to ask you if you are free next Friday”

“Next Friday? I shouldn’t be busy”

“Okay, don’t make any plans then” she smiled devilishly, looking over at John and sticking out her tongue, she then turned away from us and continued talking with Garrett.

“That, that was interesting” John whispered over to me, I just shrugged, I had no clue what Fal was brewing up.

We finally arrived at the hotel, we got our things out and walked over to the front to check in. I looked over at John, both embarrassed and worried to ask where we were sleeping.

It appeared the rest of the couples were staying with their significant others in the same room.
John looked over at me and practically read all my questions written on my face.

“Don’t worry, I got us a room, with two beds and if you’re not okay with that, Jared and I can share a room and you and Tessa can share another”

I could feel my face turning red as I took a deep breath.

“I think we’ll be okay in the same room”

“You’re getting shy on me” he teased.

“Am not!” I blushed even more.

He just laughed, a shy laugh as he grabbed the key to our room.

“We are heading out to Malibu at 9am sharp, you guys have a goodnight” Pat said to us as we all headed to our separate rooms.

John helped me with our things as we got on the elevator.
We looked for the room and I put in the key. I opened the door, instantly feeling the freshness of the air conditioner. We sat down our things and then we just looked at each other.

Being in a hotel room together had made us shy. I turned around and went to the balcony to look at the view from our window.

“Are you tired?” he asked me.

I turned around to look at him and shrugged.

“I mean, I’m tired because we were in car for like 7 hours but not quite tired enough to sleep yet”

“You want to go out for a walk?”

“Is it safe?”

“You’re with me”

“If we get mugged, it’s on you”

We began walking the streets of Los Angeles, looking at the people around us, at the lights, the graffiti, the sound of the thousands of cars.

“How come you guys never moved here?”

“To LA?”

“Yeah, I mean, a lot of bands do that, everything is closer here”

“We thought about it, but there was something that held us back, whatever it was, it was for a good reason”

“That’s very true”

“I have a question for you Mel”

“What is it?”

“How do you feel about me being in a band?”

“Honestly?”

“Yeah, honestly”

“I haven’t given it much thought, I mean, it’s a lot to take in, I guess what scares me the most is the fact that you guys go on tours, and are away for a long time, I’m not sure how I will deal with that”

“That really is a tough thing, I worry about it too. It’s a big test on relationships” he said reaching for my hand. We stopped walking.

“I fully support your band though, you guys are true talent, and I’m more than proud of what you guys do, so I guess we will just have to well, enjoy the time we do have together”

“You’re making me fall in love with you Mel”

“I thought you already were…” I raised an eyebrow.

“I mean-” he began but I simply laughed as I pulled on his hand so we could continue walking.
As we continued walking back to the hotel, I thought of all the wasted years I spent alone in New York. My new life, just 5 months in, had already felt more fulfilling than my entire life all together.

***
John's P.O.V

We were back in the hotel room. I noticed Mel instantly getting shy and awkward around me again.

“I’m going to change into my pajamas” she whispered as she quickly grabbed her things and took them into the bathroom.

I had never been with a girl as shy as Mel, as conservative as Mel.
Most girls would have thrown themselves at me from the moment we would have entered the room, but Mel had no plans to.

Mel came out of the bathroom, in a tank top and pajama pants with an interesting print. Her pajamas had tiny little water melon slices smiling next to smiling palm trees.
I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

She looked at me confused as she looked down at her pants, she looked a little offended.

“Are you laughing at my pajamas?”

“Yes”

“That’s rude, I really like these”

“I like them too”

“You think they’re silly”

“I think they really showcase your personality”

“And what exactly is my personality?” she scoffed.

“Sweet, wholesome, lovely, innocent, real”

“Well then” she said crossing her arms.

“I’m going to go change too”

She nodded as she sat down on her bed, arms crossed, still probably thinking about what I had said.
I put on some shorts and a t shirt and walked out. She was lying on the bed now on her belly, as she scrolled through her phone.

“Babe”

She didn’t look my way.

“You’re misunderstanding”

“You laughed at my favorite pajamas, that hurt”

“But not for the reason you’re thinking” I said taking a seat on my own bed.
“I’m going to be real honest with you right now Mel”

“Go ahead” she said putting her phone down.

“I just really like how you’re different than every other girl I’ve met, you really don’t care about seducing me, you genuinely like me, you like me so much that you’re comfortable enough to step out in your cute pajamas with little smiling watermelon slices” I had to hold back a laugh at the description of her pajamas, she almost laughed too.

“Ah, I see”

“I really love the way you are Mel, most girls would have come out in their best lingerie or sexiest pajama to try and well I don’t know, but it’s such a relief that you didn’t, you don’t want me for my body”

“And you don’t want me for mine either, you respected me enough to get us a two-bed hotel room, I’m sure that must have been awkward to explain to the guys”

“Honestly, they just admired us”

She smiled and nodded. She then looked over at the time.

“Let’s just go to sleep, we have to wake up early, Pat said 9am sharp”

“I agree”

“Do you snore John?”

“You’ll find out” I laughed evilly as I turned off the light.

“Maybe I’m the one who snores” she whispered.

“We’ll just snore together in harmony if that’s the case”

“Sounds like a plan”

“Goodnight Mel”

“Night, night my Johno"